Hospital Treatment Overseas Can Make You Sick

As a 54-year-old cardiologist on vacation in London, I developed symptoms of the flu after experiencing Europe’s “worst summer in 20 years.”

As the symptoms grew progressively worse, I moved from the apartment in which I was living alone to a hotel on Park Lane. Pains had developed in my chest and, having had coronary artery bypass surgery, I was concerned that they might be related to my heart.

A friend took me to a well-known National Health Service teaching hospital in central London. We arrived at 9 p.m. at the casualty department of the hospital, equivalent to our emergency room. A notice stated that the average delay for being examined was about four hours.

There was no one at the desk. After a 30-minute delay, a nurse walked up and asked if I was in pain. The maximum risk from a heart attack is within the first hour of pain.

Further Delay

If indeed I had been having a heart attack, I would have run this risk with no help in sight. I was shown to a cubicle about one hour after I arrived, and I did not see a doctor until 2 a.m. the following morning.

At last I was examined by a terribly overworked physician, who was delightful, kind and gave me support and friendship. He advised admission to the hospital. An electrocardiogram had been done about an hour before his visit and a chest X-ray was done subsequently.

I was admitted to a private overnight stay unit by the physician, who wanted me under observation. He doubted that I was having a heart attack, but drew blood for tests that would either confirm or deny it.

However, the results of the blood tests would not be available for two days.

Had I experienced a heart attack, the tests would not have been run until the results were practically useless.

Blast of Cold Air

I was wheeled into a private ward and shown to a bed. There was great discomfort in my chest, aggravated by a cold blast of air from an air conditioner directed at me.

I pointed this out to the nursing staff as tactfully as I could, and received a great deal of consideration but no action, because the fixture could not be moved.

The bed was finally moved, but the room was so small that it did not eliminate the piercing cold. I continued to feel pain throughout the night and inadvertently activated an alarm that brought an emergency team.

I decided to leave at the earliest opportunity. I had entered the ward at 5 a.m. with no sleep and, at about 7:30 the same morning (Sunday), a laborer arrived with a rack and pinion hammer and other tools and proceeded to drill a hole in the wall to set up a TV antenna.

This clanging and hammering went on incessantly for the next two to three hours, after which, having abandoned all thought of sleep, I walked to the communal shower then returned to bed.

Surprisingly, the food sent was quite adequate. I did not see my doctor until late afternoon. He appeared to have been working continuously through the night.

Back to the Hotel

I was discharged, returned to the hotel and continued to have the same symptoms. The following morning, having gone through an extremely harrowing and painful night, I reluctantly contacted a cardiologist who was an old acquaintance, and through his help was admitted to a private hospital.

I staggered down the stairs of the hotel and settled my bill, feeling extremely faint.

An ambulance was summoned and two poker-faced individuals walked up and motioned me in.

I asked them where I was to be taken and they stated that they were taking me to another National Health Service hospital.

Mustering all my strength, I summarily dismissed them, obtained my own transport and took off to the private hospital.

Shortly after I arrived there I lost consciousness for a little while, but received care and attention akin to anything or even better than what I would have received in a hospital in the United States.

Being a cardiologist, having had a heart attack and having had bypass surgery, I could easily have lost my life as a result of a convoluted national health system and the unavailability of a doctor for emergency purposes.

If you’re headed to England on vacation, take heed: There is increased privatization of medicine in England and, unless you know a friendly cardiologist, have contact with a private hospital and have insurance, you could very well suffer the same series of catastrophic experiences that I endured.